OAK BAY 102
LORD TWEEDSMUIR 82
For the fourth straight year, the Oak Bay Breakers senior girls will be bringing back a medal from the sa国际传媒 High School Provincial Basketball Championships.
The No. 5-ranked Breakers claimed the triple-A bronze medal Saturday afternoon with an impressive 102-82 victory over No. 3 Lord Tweedsmuir at the Langley Events Centre. Oak Bay also finished third in 2013 and 2015, and brought home silver in 2014.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a crazy run the girls have been on. I think a lot of the success this year can be attributed to Dean Cristante, who coached the junior group last year. A lot of the kids I have this year, they had the base and Dean had done so much for them,鈥� said Breakers鈥� head coach Rob Kinnear.
鈥淚t makes a huge difference having those great junior coaches. As a senior coach, you just put them in spots as opposed to teaching them.鈥�
Don鈥檛 let Kinnear fool you though, he鈥檚 done another solid job with the Breakers, especially getting them prepared after a tough semi-final setback the previous night.
Oak Bay lost to the No. 1 seed and two-time defending champion Brookswood 鈥� a nemesis for the past three years, also losing last year鈥檚 semifinal and the gold-medal game the year before to the Bobcats.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e playing good ball right now. We had to be perfect to beat them. We played fine Friday. We didn鈥檛 play bad by any means. We needed to be at our very best for 40 minutes and we were just good, and when you鈥檙e playing a team as skilled as they are, they can run away from you pretty quick,鈥� said Kinnear, whose team loses just two Grade 12s and will be a favourite next season.
鈥淎ll the people that played major minutes this week return, which is exciting. We had four Grade 10s play a lot of minutes,鈥� said Kinnear, who was delighted with his team鈥檚 season. 鈥淥verall, I鈥檓 very happy. For a young team to step up like it did. Again, I didn鈥檛 realize all the talent I was getting and a lot of credit goes to Dean.鈥�
On Saturday, the Breakers were too strong for Lord Tweedsmuir.
鈥淚t was a solid performance. They showed a lot of resiliency. It鈥檚 always a tough game to play in,鈥� said Kinnear. 鈥淭hey played really well right from the opening tip. They stuck with it and had one of their best offensive performances of the year,鈥�
Meanwhile, the No. 9 Claremont Spartans took No. 6 Riverside to overtime before succumbing 72-64 in the fifth-place game in triple-A play. Regulation time had ended 58-58.
In double-A consolation play, Pacific Christian finished 10th after a 64-41 loss to Britannia; Ballenas placed 12th after being squeaked out 72-68 by Okanagan Mission; and Little Flower Academy edged out St. Michaels University School 58-55 for 13th.
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